Like A Rainbow
by badly-knitted
Summary: Ryo's day off takes a turn for the multi-coloured. Set after Like Like Love and written for fic promptly.


**Title:** Like A Rainbow

 **Author:** badly-knitted

 **Characters:** Ryo, OCs, Dee.

 **Rating:** PG

 **Setting:** After Like Like Love

 **Summary:** Ryo's day off takes a turn for the multi-coloured.

 **Word Count:** 960

 **Written For:** My own prompt 'FAKE, Dee/Ryo, an altercation in a paint store leaves Ryo looking like a rainbow exploded on him,' at fic_promptly.

 **Disclaimer:** I don't own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.

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OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

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This wasn't the way Ryo had expected his day off to go. He'd only come to the paint store to get a tin of white emulsion and a new roller, but while he'd been chatting with one of the assistants, some guy had stormed in off the street and started laying into one of the other assistants, accusing him of trying to steal his girlfriend.

Customers scattered, trying to get away from the fight, but naturally Ryo had gone to see if he could calm things down. That was probably a mistake.

"Police," he'd announced himself, flashing his shield. "Break it up or I'll have to arrest you for disturbing the peace."

"Stay out of it, cop," the first guy snarled. "He's gonna get what's comin' to him."

"I didn't do nothin', honest!" the shop assistant pleaded, ducking behind Ryo out of his attacker's reach. As the first guy lunged, Ryo raised his hands to stop him, only to find himself lifted off his feet and thrown bodily into a stack of paint tins. Unsurprisingly he fell, and so did the whole display, crashing down around and on top of him, tins busting open, their contents exploding over everything.

The perpetrator of the disaster took one look at the chaos he'd wrought and fled, leaving a trail of paint footprints behind. Ryo was too dazed to give chase, but it didn't matter because someone had called the police and a squad car pulled up outside just in time to apprehend the would-be fugitive.

After several false starts because his feet kept slipping in the mess, Ryo managed to scramble to his feet, wincing and clutching his arm.

"You okay?" someone asked; it was the assistant he'd been talking to earlier. The other one, the victim of the attack, was staring in horror at the mess, mumbling something about how it wasn't his fault.

"Yes, but I think my arm might be broken." Paint mixed with blood dripped down Ryo's face. He ignored it.

"You should probably sit down," the assistant said, steering him to a nearby crate.

"Why? I only just stood up."

"Your head's bleeding."

"Oh. Right." He sat.

Before long, the paramedics arrived and ushered Ryo into their ambulance, with him apologising about the mess the entire time. "I only wanted a tin of paint," he explained helplessly.

"Looks like you got more than you bargained for," one of the paramedics replied.

Ryo looked down at his clothes, covered in splotches and splashes of paint in at least a dozen different colours, and groaned. "I look like a piece of abstract art." It was a good thing he was wearing old clothes because it was unlikely anything he had on would be salvageable.

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OoOoO

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Some time later, he sat in a treatment area at the hospital waiting for the results of the x-ray on his arm. The paint was drying on his skin and starting to itch, he would have loved to wash it off but he was under orders to stay put. A nurse had told him someone would be along shortly to clean and stitch his head wound.

The curtain moved aside and a familiar figure appeared. Dee took one look at Ryo and burst out laughing. "You look like you got caught in an explosion at a rainbow factory! What the hell happened?"

"A display fell on me, or I fell on it. Something like that. What're you doing here?"

"I got worried when you didn't come home so I called the paint store. They told me there was a fight and you'd been taken to hospital, so I rang around until I found you, and here I am. I spoke to one of the doctors, he said you have mild concussion and a possible broken arm."

"Doesn't hurt so much now, I think it's probably just bruised." Ryo looked at his arm. "Hard to tell through all the paint."

"Stay there, I'll be right back."

A few minutes later, Dee returned with a basin of water and some cloths. Setting them down on a handy trolley he started to clean the paint off Ryo's face.

"Good thing it was emulsion and not gloss, at least this will wash off."

"Soon as we get home, I want a shower."

"No argument from me. I'll even help."

Ryo was feeling marginally cleaner and somewhat more comfortable when the doctor arrived. "Your x-ray came back clear, so we're probably looking at a bad sprain. I can have someone bandage it…" He trailed off, looking at the multi-coloured limb.

"Just give me the bandage and I'll strap him up once he's had a shower," Dee suggested.

"That might be best," the doctor agreed. "Let me take a look at your head wound." Thankfully, the cut had stopped bleeding and as it was shallow, he decided to leave it. "Don't worry if it bleeds in the shower, it'll wash any paint out of the wound. You can put a bandaid over it if it's more comfortable that way."

"Thanks. Does that mean I can go?"

"I think so."

Leaving the hospital, Ryo ignored the stares he was getting, resigned to being rainbow-coloured. At least thanks to Dee his face was mostly clean now.

"You know what?" Dee asked, unlocking the car.

"What?"

"I kinda like the look, rainbows suit you. You're like the perfect advertisement for Gay Pride."

Ryo looked down at his paint-stained clothes and chuckled. "That's one way of putting it I guess."

"So, you and me, next Pride Parade, whaddaya say?" Dee asked, a hopeful look on his face.

"I don't know, maybe." Ryo smiled at his lover.

"I'll take maybe. C'mon, let's get you home and cleaned up."

Ryo nodded. "Best idea I've heard all day."

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The End


End file.
